Contract- work 1 73 



seems to include 1 weeding and 'cleaning' of the land, at least for cereal 

 crops, and also is prescribed for the skilled tending of a vineyard. For 

 such works as these it is fairly certain that the persons employed were 

 assumed to be living in the neighbourhood. In the case of the blacksmith 2 

 (faber ferrarius) there can be no doubt, for his forge is spoken of as a 

 fit place for drying grapes, hung presumably in the smoke of his wood 

 fire. Now all these skilled men are evidently free, and work on agreed 

 terms. Some of them are certainly not singlehanded, but whether their 

 underlings are freemen or slaves or both we are left to guess. In all 

 cases their work is such as calls not only for skill and industry but also 

 for good faith, which cannot be expected from slaves. It is in short 

 contract- work, whether the bargain be made in a formal agreement or 

 not. 



The employment of contractors, each with his own staff, at times 

 of pressure such as the getting in and disposal of crops, has been referred 

 to above, and it has been remarked that some at least of this emergency- 

 labour was performed by freemen. We must therefore conclude that 

 in Cato's time there was a considerable supply of casual labourers in 

 country districts, on whose services landlords could rely. The contractor 

 would seem to have been either a 'ganger' who bargained for terms 

 with the landlord on behalf of his work-party, or a capitalist owning a 

 gang of slaves. What made the difference would be the nature of the 

 job in hand, according as skill or mere brute strength was chiefly re- 

 quired. But that slave labour was the essential factor, on which Cato- 

 nian agriculture normally depended, is beyond all doubt. The slave 

 steward is not only responsible 3 for the control of the slave staff (familid) 

 and their wellbeing and profitable employment. He is authorized to 

 employ other labour, even free labour, at need ; only he must not keep 

 such persons hanging about the place. He is to pay them off and 

 discharge them without delay, no doubt in order to prevent them from 

 unsettling the slaves by their presence. And slaves must never be idle. 

 When a master calls his steward to account for insufficient results on 

 the farm, the latter is expected to plead in excuse not only the weather 

 but shortage of hands; slaves have been sick or have run away; or they 

 have been employed 4 on state- work (opus publicum effecisse), probably 



in mending the roads, for this is recognized below. 



* 



1 Ibid 136. In 5 4 the politor appears as a hired wage-earner, apparently paid by the 

 job. In Varro in 2 5 we fad. f undo... polito cultura. See Nonius p 66 M for poliliones = 

 agrorum cultus diligentes. Greenidge hist p 79 regards the politores as metayer tenants, why, 

 I do not know. 2 Ibid 7 2, -21 5. 



3 Ibid 5, especially 4 operarium, mercennarium, politorem diutius eundem ne habeat die. 

 This is taken by Wallon II pp 100, 345, to mean that these hired men are to be paid off at 

 the end of their stipulated term. Keil thinks they are to be dischargeable at a day's notice. 

 eundem seems to imply that it was convenient to change your hired men often. 



4 Ibid 2 2, and 4 viam publicam muniri. 



